New technology allows molecules to enter cells safely

Professor Kevin Braeckmans from Ghent University focused the last 10 years on a method for safe engineering of therapeutic cells with photothermal nanofibers. Today, Nature Nanotechnology gives insight in how these biocompatible photothermal nanofibers were developed, and how, upon laser irradiation, cells that come in contact with those nanofibers become permeabilized and can be transfected with a variety of effector molecules, including CRISPR/Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complexes and siRNA. Professor Braeckmans and his team demonstrated that cells, such as embryonic stem cells and human T cells, transfected with such nanofibers are in excellent health and retain their therapeutic functionality.